alikely

About alikely

alikely shows you a four-by-four board of emoji and keeps the rule secret. Some of the tiles share a hidden connection, a season, a colour, a use, a sound, and you have to work out what it is from the tiles themselves. Tap a tile: green means it belongs, red costs one of your lives. Find them all before the lives run out to win.

The puzzle is the same for everyone each day, and the difficulty follows the week. Monday and Tuesday are Easy, with six tiles to find and one revealed free; Wednesday and Thursday are Medium, with five plus a freebie; Friday and Saturday are Hard, with four plus a freebie; and Sunday is Expert, with five and no free tile. Tiles found earn points, worth more on harder days, wrong taps cost half a tile's value, and a quick finish adds a speed bonus. A Give Up button shows the answer without a score.

alikely is one of six dailies from Lost Art Games, alongside Letterbox, Scuotes, D3C1PH3R, fanimoji and 29GO. It suits players who like Connections-style lateral thinking but want something shorter and more visual.

How to play alikely

1. Open the day's alikely and look over the sixteen emoji; on most days one matching tile is already revealed.
2. Work out what the revealed tile might have in common with others.
3. Tap a tile you think shares the hidden trait: green is right, red costs a life.
4. Keep going until you have found every matching tile, or run out of lives.
5. See your score and your rank on the daily leaderboard.

Tips

• Use the free tile: list a few things it could stand for before tapping anything.
• Look for an odd pairing, such as a food and a piece of clothing, that only one theme could join.
• Harder days have fewer tiles to find, so a wrong guess costs proportionally more; slow down at the weekend.

Questions